Marrying for power: Gendered alliances in mafias

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Criminology
• Network Analysis

Background:

• The Italian mafia, specifically the 'Ndrangheta, is a complex criminal organization.
• Understanding the internal dynamics, power structures, and cohesion mechanisms of such organizations is crucial for effective law enforcement and social science research.
• Matrimonial ties have been historically observed as a strategy for alliance-building and power consolidation in various social structures, including organized crime.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the relationship between marriage patterns and power/cohesion within the 'Ndrangheta.
• To investigate whether matrimonial ties serve as an organizational technology for enhancing network resilience and managing power dynamics.
• To test the 'bride-receiving' narrative and explore gendered exchange patterns in relation to clan influence.

Main Methods:

• Utilized judicial records detailing 770 inter-clan alliances and 906 marriages among 623 'Ndrangheta clans.
• Applied network analysis to map clan positions and centrality within the marriage network.
• Simulated the removal of marriage ties to assess their impact on network fragmentation and cohesion.

Main Results:

• Powerful clans occupy central positions in the marriage network.
• Alliances among less influential clans act as critical "load-bearing" ties, with their removal rapidly fragmenting the network.
• An inverted-U relationship was observed: clans with moderate bride-receiving shares (55-60%) exhibit the highest centrality, while extreme senders or receivers are peripheral.
• No statistically significant evidence supports status alone determining gendered exchange patterns, despite powerful clans having a slightly higher share of incoming brides.

Conclusions:

• Marriage functions as an organizational technology within the 'Ndrangheta, enhancing resilience through overlapping ties.
• Moderate gender asymmetries in marriage patterns optimize lineage consolidation and network brokerage.
• The organization's durability relies on both peripheral-to-peripheral alliances and unions of powerful families, highlighting marriage's dual role in cohesion and power management.